Re-Alignment On The Run

These days, there’s an app for everything — including checking the alignment of your running posture. Acupuncturist Doug Bertram developed an iPhone application called The Body Level that can help determine what a runner’s posture looks like, either in a stationary position or while running. Simply snap a picture of the subject on a level surface and then drag horizontal and vertical guidelines alongside various aspects of the body to check for level hips, level shoulders, a vertical torso and even excess rotation in the ankle and lower legs.

The app is just as practical in a clinic laboratory setting as it is in a locker room or out on the roads. Bertram, L.Ac, MTCM, put the app to good use during the 2010 Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile running race that runs from Death Valley, Calif., to the base of Mt. Whitney. Bertram was a support crew member of Ian Adamson, one of the world’s most decorated endurance athletes. Prior to the race and during the race, he snapped pictures of Adamson’s posture (in a static pose and while running) and looked for structural imbalances that can occur when fatigue sets in or while running on a canted road for a long time. Bertram worked small focal adhesions in the connective tissue that can cause temporary structural imbalances, helping eliminate a functional leg length imbalance brought on by a biomechanical misalignment.

Adamson went on to finish 18th overall and first in the master’s category (45+) with a time of 34 hours, 32 minutes. But he admits, he would have been hard-pressed to reach the finish line without Bertram and his trust iPhone app.

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